Being trans without dysphoria?

I think there should be at least some kind of discontent with being birth-gendered and a strong need or desire to be another gender. Call it dysphoria, call it whatever you want. It could be physical, mental, social. Everyone's story is different, but I don't think people should transition just for the hell of it.

 

See and there's the rub, and why I was trying to be careful with words.

To a lot of people, anyone that cross dresses is transgender. Rarely people even extend this definition to gay sex, since it does break a gender stereotype, but most people don't. And then a lot of people, like yourself, uses the word to mean transitioners like myself. That confusion is there for a very good reason; you see, over the course of its life, the word "transgender" itself has meant almost completely opposite things at one time or another.

The term was invented way back in the 60s when "primary transvestism" was still a thing and we did not know as much about people like myself. Ironically enough when it was invented it carried nearly the opposite of the meaning it has today;

In other words, "transgender" was for only transitioners like me. Actually not even then; back in the 60s I would have to get myself a pretend husband as well. It would have made great sitcom material. Anyway there is a lot of history, good bad and ugly, around that time that I won't get into, but suffice to say it was a different time and we were learning a lot about a lot.

So the term we recognize today came into use in the 70s and was made official in the 80s by the International Conference on Transgender Law and Employment Policy . According to them, transgender includes "transsexuals, transgenderists, cross dressers".

It's a political identity. The idea is that we all have similar enough needs that we can join forces and fight for all our rights at the same time. Advances for people like myself should make life easier for cross dressers and vice versa. A lot of people enjoy the term too because it means they can be a little vague while they are maybe trying to figure themselves out, or trying to get as many perspectives from us as they can.

The end result though is, it sometimes causes confusion. Which is why I think this thread is a good one, because it lets us living breathing people in 2014 instead of 1965 talk about what words mean to us. We after all are the ones that are stuck with them.

 

Well said, miss.:eusa_clap